Exactly, allegory: TNG and DS9 in particular have episodes about some pretty hot-button topics. Political terrorism; assisted suicide; gender identity and relat

Exactly, allegory: TNG and DS9 in particular have episodes about some pretty hot-button topics. Political terrorism; assisted suicide; gender identity and relations; religious rights; capital punishment, and the justice system in general; mental health; environmentalism... The veneer of the transporter and the rubber foreheads provide just enough distance for these things to be portray-able without everyone having an immediate hot take reaction and turning their brains off. They wouldn't work if they were put in an Earthbound setting: they'd be too real, too inflammatory. I agree that the technobabble can be annoying, and there's certainly fluff in there. But Roddenberry wanted to tell stories about us as we are, and as we could be, just as much as Stross: he just approached it from a different angle.